Profile:In the past five years Stanford has been a tight end factory, developing Coby Fleener, Zach Ertz, Levine Toilolo, and Austin Hooper and sending them on to the NFL. If you were an elite high school tight end, why would you consider anywhere else? Kaden Smith fits that description, so it shouldn't be much of a surprise that he chose to follow in those footsteps.

All you really need to know about Smith is revealed at the top of this post -- he was rated as one of the top two or three prep tight ends in America, and he was coveted by college football royalty. He turned down eight SEC offers, and in the end his decision came down to Alabama and Stanford, with the Cardinal obviously getting the nod.

Watching his senior year highlight video, it takes only about thirty seconds to start feeling sorry for his high school foes; after a minute or two you begin to worry about his future Pac-12 opponents. Yes, he's that good. What jumps out immediately is Smith's incredible versatility. He's clearly the top athlete on his team, so he's used in a variety of ways -- as a traditional tight end lined up along the line of scrimmage, as an extra blocker in the running game, and as a wide receiver split out wide. He excels in all three roles, but it's his pass catching ability that truly sets him apart. Whether he's coming across the field on a short crossing route or galloping free down the middle or outleaping smaller defenders on a fade route, he always catches the ball with his hands. (How good are his hands? Check out this video from last spring in which Smith breaks Odell Beckham, Jr's Guiness world record for most one-handed catches in a minute.) This isn't a big kid learning the game, this is an elite athlete who will be a matchup nightmare in the Pac-12 and beyond.

With the current tight end depth on the Stanford roster it's unlikely that Smith will see the field in 2016, but the thought of playing him along with Dalton Schultz and Greg Taboada to form another tight end triplet group could prove too much for David Shaw to resist. Either way, the future could not be brighter for Kaden Smith and Stanford football.

Profile:With Christian McCaffrey and Bryce Love already known commodities and Cameron Scarlett on the way, there is no immediate need for running back help, but Trevor Speights is a great addition for the future. Sometimes it's hard to know what to do with high school statistics, but Speights's numbers are mind boggling. He rushed for 9,868 yards in his career, good for fourth in state history, and in his senior year alone he ran for 3,180 yards with fifty touchdowns. Yes, this is high school, but FIFTY touchdowns!

The film on Speights is impressive. Sure, you'll see plenty of highlight runs with ridiculous juke moves and breakaway speed (he's been clocked at a blazing 4.38 for the forty), but what really jumps out is that Speights is a complete player, more than willing to block for others and capable of getting out into the pass pattern as well. He's also versatile. He seems equally comfortable running between the tackles and outside the hashmarks, and there are similarities between his high school offense and the one he'll be running at Stanford, which will help his transition to Pac-12 play.

By all accounts, Speights is also a great kid. (Check out this short clip on his signing, which includes a few quick interviews with Speights and his head coach.) There's no question that he'll do well at Stanford -- in the classroom, in the locker room, and on the field.

07/04/2016

Abraham Lincoln travelled through time this morning to make an appearance at Stanford. It seems that President Lincoln has become quite a fan of college football, watching televised games by virtue of a hole in the space-time continuum and a magic box he keeps in his office. (It should be noted, however, that not even this cosmic phenomenon is powerful enough to allow him access to the Pac-12 Networks, and Honest Abe is angry about this.) Anyway, after enjoying a quick tour of the Stanford Football facilities, Mr. Lincoln gave me a few minutes of his infinite time, and we talked some football while slowly walking through the stadium.

Profile:There is no natural rivalry between Stanford and Michigan, but since the Wolverines hired former Stanford coach Jim Harbaugh, something has been developing. Harbaugh has attempted to hire way several key Cardinal assistants, and fans of the two schools always notice when their recruiting interests overlap. Wide receiver Donald Stewart was one of those recruits, and his choice to come to the Farm represented a big win for the Cardinal. (It wasn't the only win for Shaw over Harbaugh on National Signing Day, but more on that in the days to come.)

Stewart gives the Cardinal a big receiver. At 6'4" he's the same height as the graduated Devon Cajuste, and he'll be the tallest receiver on the Stanford roster this fall. The highlight tape from his senior season shows him taking advantage of his stature by outleaping defensive backs, but he also shows ability as a route runner, dropping double moves to leave overmatched corners at the line of scrimmage. Just like running backs must be able to pass protect in the Stanford system, wide receivers are required to block downfield. Thanks to his size and athleticism, this won't be a problem for Stewart.

As he prepares to get on the field for the Cardinal -- probably in 2017 -- Stewart will likely work on becoming more versatile. His reported 4.65 forty time might not allow him to blow by Pac-12 defensive backs as easily as he did in high school, so he'll have to continue to work on his route running and possibly adapt to a role as a slot receiver. Assuming that he checks those boxes, Donald Stewart will no doubt develop into an important part of the Stanford offense in the not too distant future.

GMC Book Club

Over the past several years, GMC readers have donated a total of 402 books to my classroom! My students are always looking for new and exciting books, so if you'd like to contribute, simply click here! Or, click here to read my original post and find out more!